Namib Desert

The sand dunes of the Namib Desert, which stretches 1,290 km/800 mi along the coast and covers one-third of Namibia. It is barren except for succulents that survive by absorbing moisture from the fog that often rolls in from the Atlantic Ocean.

Dune formations in the Namib Desert, Namibia, southwest Africa.

Namib Desert, Namibia, southwest Africa. Some of the tallest sand dunes in the world are found here.

A view of the Namib Desert, Namibia, southwest Africa. A chaotic mass of barren rocks such as this one is known as moonscape.

This photograph shows the enormous scale of the dunes in the Namib Desert. They are amongst the largest dunes in the world, and are situated between the Kalahari Desert and the Atlantic Ocean.

Coastal desert region between the Kalahari Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, extending some 2,800 km/1,740 mi from Luanda in Angola to St Helena Bay in South Africa. Its aridity is caused

by the descent of dry air cooled by the cold Benguela current along the coast. The sand dunes of the Namib Desert are among the tallest in the world, reaching heights of 370 m/1,200 ft. In the most arid parts rainfall can be as little as 23 mm/0.9 in per year.